TIL that Germany created synthetic butter from coal during WW2. It was described as nutritious and of agreeable taste.
TIL that Germany created synthetic butter from coal during WW2. It was described as nutritious and of agreeable taste.
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Holy shit, one kilo of butter from 60kg of coal?!
That's some pretty spenny butter for "agreeable taste"
"The Germans preferred Ersatz."
(Or at least that's how I remember that quote from Catch-22 when I read it 25 years ago...)
Especially when they had problems getting the coal they could mine, where it needed to be used.
They used something else instead...
Butter
I can't believe it's not coal!
You might be surprised what the material and energetic footprint of dairy is.
i wonder how much emissions turning coal to butter creates. Maybe we should turn world's coal to butter so planetkillhappy bastards cant burn it.
Given it seems to generate 59kg of waste product, I don't think it is going to be that great for the environment
Unless the waste product is cheese...
It would probably be some synthetic American government cheese-like product.
Which I'm sure if the Germans had come up with it and not the Americans would also be described as being nutritious
That "waste product" isn't just thrown away.
They're still hydrocarbons. Which are used in other places or burned for fuel... Which isn't actually all that great for the environment...
Actually, tossing the waste product in a pit might be better, environmentally speaking.
You don't have to waste the other hydrocarbons when you crack something. You just use em for something else or burn them for power. Though the flare towers in refineries prove me wrong to a degree.